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Evil Night
Evil Night (known as Hell Night in Japan) is an arcade horror-themed light gun game developed and published by Konami in 1998. The story follows three people who venture into a haunted mansion in search of their kidnapped friend. The game offers three-player cooperative play, with a shotgun and two pistols featuring charge-up bullets. It runs on the Konami M2 hardware, which is derived from the cancelled Panasonic M2 game console. Plot Three people -- Henry Jones, Alicia Sevigny, and Joe Hamilton -- search for their kidnapped friend Liv in an old mansion. They battle ghosts and zombies, as well as a giant snake and chainsaw-wielding butcher. Depending on the routes taken, more backstory is implied. A journal reveals that a research team discovered an ancient ruin beneath the mansion; they sought discovering a certain room's purpose. Henry, Alicia, and Joe also find medieval paintings of Liv. In a library, Alicia finds a mysterious black book. Discovering an underground passage to the catacombs, the group battles a ball and chain-wielding zombie and a giant lizard-like creature. The catacombs leads Henry, Alicia, and Joe to the ruins, where a demonic creature threatens them. They exit to the graveyard, where Liv is being held captive; the creature -- a descendent of Liv -- plans to use her in order to achieve immortality. He transforms into a flying horned beast. After her friends defeat him, Liv uses the book Alicia found to destroy him with a spell. Endings Depending on the player's performance and how many items they have collected, the ending will differ. There are currently three known endings: * Normal Ending: The main characters reunite with Liv and walk off. Liv looks over her shoulder as the cemetery gate closes; the camera cuts to the foot of the previously-defeated final boss stepping into the ground, implying that he's still alive. * Good Ending: The main characters reunite with Liv as normal. Liv accidentally drops a spell book, setting the entire mansion on fire; the main characters walk off together. Before the credits roll, Liv narrates: "After that day, we never heard that voice again." * Bad Ending: The final boss remains alive, and transforming the main characters into zombies when they reunite with Liv. Gameplay Gameplay is largely identical to The House of the Dead. ''Up to three players move along a predetermined path, shooting and killing approaching enemies with light guns. Getting attacked results in the deduction of one life; first aid kits hidden in the environment can restore previously-lost lives. At the end of stages, boss characters are fought t A major difference are the controls. Players 1 and 3 (Henry Jones and Joe Hamilton, respectively) repel threats with handguns, which hold six bullets; when empty, pointing the gun away from the screen and firing will reload the chamber. Additionally, pointing the gun's muzzle up charges a strong "penetration bullet" that can simultaneously eliminate multiple enemies in one stroke. Player 2 (Alicia Sevingy) features a pump-action shotgun with four high-damaging bullets and widespread range. ''Evil Night ''has five stages, or chapters. The first four contain multiple branching paths; stage 1 -- the mansion -- begins with one of three selectable courses: A (a window), B (the front door), and C (a back entrance). All subsequent stages have alternate paths depending on the player's actions, such as shooting a doorknob or locked gate, or how many of three hidden keys have been collected. Such keys and collectable books also influence the game's ending. Chapters * '''Chapter 1 - [[Unforgettable Night|''Unforgettable Night]]' * '''Chapter 2 - [[The Gateway to the Hell|''The Gateway to the Hell]]' * '''Chapter 3 - [[The Ruler of the Darkness|''The Ruler of the Darkness]]' * '''Chapter 4 - [[The Voice|''The Voice]]' * '''Chapter 5 - [[The Horror|''The Horror]]' Reception Fans have compared ''Evil Night with The House of the Dead. Some have named it "a decent The House of the Dead copy." Its gameplay has been praised, though its voice acting has been criticized for being cheesy and out-of-place, similar to SEGA's The House of the Dead 2. On GameFAQs, the game has a rating of 4/5 stars based on three reviews, in which the most recent review was written on April 30, 2014. Legacy Because of the Konami M2's notoriety for hardware failures, Evil Night ''has disappeared from most arcades as of 2017. However, as of 2019 the game is playable on the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME). Notably, two arcades in the Philippines and Indonesia removed the game in 2010 and 2013-2014, respectively. Four locations in the U.S. State of Illinois are currently listed on Aurcade, though most have since closed. Reportedly, the Japan Game Museum (located in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture), has a playable ''Evil Night ''cabinet. Despite this, ''Evil Night ''still has its fans who fondly remember playing the game in their youth. A low-key online movement was started in 2017 to remove the game from its current obscurity; a TV Tropes page and an unofficial Facebook page have been created. A LEGO my-own-creation (MOC) was uploaded in Flickr in April 2013 by ilovelego777. Despite this, only the setting of the game was based while none of the original characters from the game are depicted. There are some fanarts of Evil Night posted on DeviantArt.com. Here are the following: * ''Final boss Evil Night arcade (2013) and House of the Dead Evil Night Crossover (2015) by Dinzydragon. * Joe Hamilton and Henry Jones (Farhan43 remake) (2015) by Farhan43. * HUNK in the Mansion of Death (2017) by GodEmperorGillan The full soundtrack was first obtained in mid-2017 and was uploaded on YouTube in December 2017. Trivia * The game is known as Hell Night ''in Japan, sharing the same title with a survival horror game for the Sony PlayStation released by Konami in 2000--no doubt confusing players in the Asia-Pacific region. * Some consider ''Evil Night ''to be the spiritual successor to ''Crypt Killer, ''another three-player light gun game by Konami that was released two years prior; the Player 2 shotgun is similar, and the runes stage is very reminiscent of ''Crypt Killer's ancient-themed levels. Henry Jones, the player 1 character, is likely a reference to the Japanese title of Crypt Killer, which is Henry Explorers. * Evil Night ''has always been compared to ''The House of the Dead series of light-gun games. Coincidentally, Evil Night ''and ''The House of the Dead 2 were both released in 1998, with some considering it to be a "mockbuster" of the latter. ** The players enter a dilapidated mansion and fight the monsters within it. ** The players have to rescue a woman just like in the original The House of the Dead. ** The final boss resembles the Magician in its first form. During its second form, it attacks using fireballs similar to how the Magician utilize pyrokinetics to attack the players. ** The Bad ending has players turning into zombies, just like how Sophie Richards turned into a zombie in the bad ending of The House of the Dead. * Besides Evil Night, four other games were developed for the Konami M2 hardware: Total Vice, a police and crime-themed rail shooter; Tobe! Polystars, a flying shoot 'em up with a polygonal art style; Heat of Eleven '98, a soccer game; and Battle Tryst, a fighting game. * The first full playthrough of Evil Night was posted in YouTube by the end of May 2012. It only consisted of Course C. In April 2017, roughly 5 years later, a walkthrough on Course A and B was done. This followed with the first known footage of the Good Ending and the Name Entry screen. ** Unknowingly, there was an Evil Night walkthrough already posted in a Japanese video-sharing website. It was recently discovered in July 2017 and posted the first known footage of the Bad Ending. ** The same Japanese video-sharing website has a solo shotgun walkthrough. ** A full captured card walkthrough was uploaded in November 2018 followed by a full shotgun walkthrough in May-June 2019. Gallery Posters, Flyers, and Cabinets Evilngt.png|Game flyer from 1998. HellNight-Logo.jpg|Hell Night logo as seen in the Japanese versions of the arcade cabinet. HellNight-cabinet.jpg|Hell Night arcade cabinet. This is found in the Asia-Pacific region. Evil_night.jpg|The three main characters seen on the side of the cabinet. Footage File:Konami_M2_evil_hell_night_opening|Introduction of the game as seen in the Attract Mode. This was the first known footage uploaded to YouTube in 2008. File:Evil_Night_full_picture_quality_startup_and_attract_mode|First footage of the startup and attract mode which was uploaded to YouTube in 2011. Category:Video Games Category:Evil Night